Cisco has been looking to ditch its Linksys home networking division since December and reportedly hired Barclays PLC to help find a buyer. Cisco originally acquired Linksys in 2003 for $500 million to get itself into the consumer networking market.

It looks like Cisco has finally found a buyer with Belkin announcing this week that it intends to acquire the Linksys division. The deal will see Belkin acquiring Linksys products, technology, the Linksys brand, and employees. Belkin says the Linksys main office will be located in Irvine, California.

Cisco/Linksys E4200V2 Dual-Band Wireless Router

“We’re very excited about this announcement,” said Chet Pipkin, CEO of Belkin. “Our two organizations share many core beliefs – we have similar beginnings and share a passion for meeting the real needs of our customers through the strengths of an entrepreneurial culture. Belkin’s ultimate goal is to be the global leader in the connected home and wireless networking space and this acquisition is an important step to realizing that vision.”

Belkin says that it will maintain the Linksys brand and offer support for existing Linksys products as part of the transaction. Belkin will honor all valid warranties for current and future Linksys products. Belkin also says that after the transaction closes it will own about 30% of the retail home and small business network market.

The terms of the transaction are unannounced and the deal is subject to customary closing conditions. Belkin and Cisco expect the deal to close in March 2013.

This is a disaster. Every time I go to somebody’s house to fix their internet problems, it seems to be because they have a piece of junk D-Link or Belkin router that flakes out from time to time. I get them a Linksys – problems solved. My own hasn’t required a reset since I bought it a year ago.

I hate Belkin routers. As the token nerd in my circle, I too have had several run ins woth those POS's.

It's sad that Linksys is being handed off to them. Hell, my Linksys router I got from Vonage in 2002 is still working like a champ. My other Linksys router has been running with no hiccups for over a year now(except for power outages).